1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to cryptographic control and maintenance of entities within an organization or a group of organizations. More specifically, this invention relates to trustworthy, authentic, authorized, reliable and flexible cryptographic control and maintenance of entities which are automated using computer and computer communication networks, and which hold electronic data organized in databases or directories.
2. Background & Summary
Cryptography is a basic tool for secure and reliable control of electronic transactions and processes within organizations. Control tools in organizations are often required to support multi-entity decision making in remote executions of processes within a commercial and financial body (e.g., board decision making, contract signing, memory of understanding signing, buying and selling, hiring, shipping, etc.). However, the inside of an organization (e.g., a commercial and financial body) can be quite complex both legally and technically in the commercial world. This is so since an organization can be either a single business entity (e.g., a corporation, a partnership, etc.) or a multi-business entity (e.g., an inter-banking organization, a consortium, etc.). Other types of organizations are not excluded by the above examples or any of the examples used throughout this description. Individuals are considered to be the building blocks of an organization. Individuals themselves may be a more compound sub-structure of the organization and the notion of an individual is also merely an example of an atomic body within an organization.
All the entities involved may be themselves or may own certain automated devices that typically involve computers, communication networks, aided devices (such as telephones, auxiliary computers, smart-cards, etc.). Entities may be individuals or groups or software agents or hardware devices or combinations thereof. The invention applies, without limitation, to all of the above entities.
Cryptographic representation of an organization has typically been defined statically, for a given time. Certain rules and capabilities associated with an entity in an organization are represented in the cryptographic representation (e.g., within certification authority (CA) technology, access to a trusted public key, Kerberos, etc.). Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/492,534, filed Jan. 27, 2000, titled “Methods For Operating Infrastructure Applications For Cryptographically-Supported Services,” discloses, inter alia, methods for provision of a service to an organization based on cryptographic representation of the organization. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/492,534 is incorporated herein by reference.
This invention provides for controlling and maintaining organizational or structural changes inside an entity (e.g., commercial or financial entity). This adds a level of complexity in managing the “inside” of an entity. It is common for commercial and financial bodies to undergo organizational changes which may modify the control structure over processes and transactions. These changes generally are not predictable and therefore there cannot be an a priori understanding of the security and flexibility implications of these changes. In fact, the control structures implemented by security engineers may result in an highly inflexible infrastructure which may be very secure but also very static. This may be typically attributed to failing to take into consideration the dynamic nature of business. For instance, when two banks merge together into a single financial entity, there are new “agents” in the system which will be part of the overall control, there may be new regulations which now apply, and different trading constraints as well as opportunities may develop. In various aspects, this invention provides cryptographic control which is flexible enough for the modern global and dynamic market, i.e., that assures proper “change Control.”
In the area of certification authorization there is a debate on representation of certificate by “name of entity/individual” vs. representation by “roles” within an organization. A dynamic organization, according to the present invention, can act as a tool that bridges the gap between these two representations as a special case. In fact, this invention provides a method to connect two or more representations of entities. This can be generalized to connecting any number of representations at the same level, hierarchically or only partially. The mechanisms in this invention are flexible and connecting parties can be incorporated in many types of structures or substructures (e.g., multi-domain Kerberos, PGP system where certification is flat, etc.), though the common example today is hierarchical.
Changes can also be applied to inter-organization relationships. Management of business organizations based on temporal or contractual limitations is needed. Dynamic management of relationships based on changing inter-entity connections (supply-chain management, partnerships management, joint venture management, etc.) are provided.
In addition to the dynamic nature or relationships inter-organizational agreements and responsibilities may demand complete control of locally maintained software, hardware and parameters. In some aspects, this invention provides a layer of organizing individuals into roles and groups within an organization. Note that a hierarchical application of the methods according to the present invention is possible where the organized elements become individuals for the next organizational layer. The organization can be a hierarchy, as well as based on various sub-structures and more complex relationships among individuals. The structure and relationships may differ based on which element belongs to which sub-organization (or separate organization). Also, it may be assumed that an entity is assigned a so-called “role” which defines its function, and it may be desirable to change the function itself (e.g., by changing hardware devices, modules, software).
In some aspects, this invention provides cryptographic controls within organizations. The present invention, in some aspects, relies on the following:    1. Fault-tolerant cryptographic designs supported by a method of describing the structure of an organization gives rise to an extended flexible design that enables enhanced functionality of the underlying control. This functionality deals with today's dynamically changing business environments.    2. Flexibility of control is naturally achieved by having a flexible key management level which assures that many of the transactions and processes will not be affected by many of the potential structural changes. The key management components can be based, e.g., on mechanisms like a public key infrastructure.    3. Implicit and explicit change mechanisms for the control functions must be enabled. The former are invisible externally, whereas the later are noticeable and may need to be registered by the environment. Both types of mechanisms require an internal management function which can be achieved by combining traditional key management technology with dynamic access control technology. This enables the maintenance of the semantics of the organizational structure.    4. Anonymous changes, or moving functions anonymously within an organization, may be needed. It is not assumed that the structure is fully exposed and sub-structures may be dealt differently.    5. Change of the holders of cryptographic capability may be needed, as may there be a need to change a capability while either maintaining or changing the holder. Change can be, e.g., by means of installing or communicating authorized software programs, installing authorized hardware, moving devices, etc. Since not all computational implements and mechanisms are equally trustworthy, the ability to control precisely authorization for change is required and provided by the present invention. In addition, the implementation of high trust computational resources must contain within their own structure the ability to enforce proper authorization, as is provided by the present invention.
A trustworthy and authorized approach is needed and provided by the present invention to control the control method(s) of the invention itself (e.g., authorized data and software updating). the present invention maintains self-awareness which determines the capabilities that an element in the structure allows. The method(s) according to aspects of the present invention disclose control management and maintenance mechanisms that are useful in many scenarios and many changes that the organization goes through such as, e.g.:                Internal: Changing of structure like departmental and divisional changes as well as internal personnel changes, especially in the world of corporate reorganization and re-engineering. Change of business, for instance, addition or removal of product lines.        Environmental: Change in regulation, law, common practices, underlying technology and the like.        External: Change which is due to interaction with other entities such as mergers, acquisitions, adding/removing partners, joining/dismemberment into/from consortiums etc. These changes involve previously external parties and may result in an update of what is internal and what is external.        Global: Changing many dependencies, such as changing the entire line of business, etc. while retaining legal connection to the past.        
The above are not mutually exclusive. For instance, a merger may bring new officers and directors to a company. Even internal changes have an external affect as would be the case in hiring a new CEO or adding a new commercial/financial product/service line.
The changes can involve individuals:
Individuals may shift roles and may take various responsibilities by leaving and joining internal bodies. Roles of individuals and groups have changed in organizations. Indeed, it is recognized that organizations have to operate much more closely to their customers, which may require changes. This implies that hierarchical and vertical structures are not necessarily the best. Indeed, in high-technology and other fast-moving industries, the organizational structure must change to remain competitive and innovative. This implies a more chaotic structure and the need for versatile configurations that are capable to support creativity, innovations and entrepreneurship. This implies the need for flatter organization (and the elimination of many middle management functions). Modern companies engage in closer cooperation and communication internally and externally. Teams, which are usually temporary, become major organizational building blocks. As new products, customers and ways of competing are sought, new organizational structures based on new teams are created. Modern business practice can be more decentralized so that manufacturing can be done in remote locations where it is cheap while strong control can be retained by management; this is the model of many successful companies.
Other changes involve the organizations themselves:
Restructuring of companies may be a result of a new strategy and/or a new assessment of the market. Downsizing as well as hiring and expansion of business may take place. Externally, partnerships and alliances may be sought as strategic growth is looked for. These typically involve new contracts and new control functions. New agreements have to be monitored and the expected advantages have to be verified, tuned and adjusted as time goes on by a joint management and control team. Similar issues arise in setting up a consortium or a joint venture by a number of companies which manage it jointly.
Similarly, break-ups and spin-offs on the one hand and mergers and acquisitions on the other hand are changes involving external bodies. They are motivated by business strategy, growth opportunities, combining technologies or by regulatory requirements (e.g., antitrust or competition laws). In recent years, firms in certain industries are consolidating by mergers, whereas other industries exhibit break ups and spin-offs.
Another issue is outsourcing capabilities which may be run by one organization on behalf of an entity and may be move to another organization or to the entity itself. This refines some notions of services by not only changing service statically but also dynamically changing roles, structures and functionaries as service is moved. For the notion of service bureau by one organization or some organization giving service to another organization, this is an added feature of aspects of the present invention.
To summarize, dynamic flexible design is crucial for maintaining life-cycle support of organizations. Without limitation, this invention concentrates on systems that employ cryptographic components as their basic control structure (for signing, decrypting, and validating actions).
The above illustrates many scenarios which require the control and maintenance that the present invention offers.